To Mark or Not to Mark

DEBORAH CROMBIE: In our recent What We’re Reading post, I mentioned how much I loved Niall Williams’ TIME OF THE CHILD. What I didn’t say was how desperately I wanted to underline so many of his phrases and sentences, not only because of the lyrical beauty of his language, but because many seemed so profound and life-affirming that I wanted to remember them. BUT. I was reading my daughter’s new hardcover copy, and there was no way I was going to mark in that book. Even in pencil, which could have later been erased. I did stick in some post-it notes, but that’s not quite the same, and I was too engrossed in the story to get out a notebook and copy things down.

Even in my own books, and even with books I don’t intend to loan out or give away, I’m very reluctant to do any damage to a printed page. When did I get so squeamish? I certainly wasn’t in college. As a biology major, I’d be lucky if half my pages weren’t fluorescent yellow or pink with highlighter. And marked up with pencil and pen.

Of course, I can highlight passages if I’m reading an e-book, but somehow my brain doesn’t process that the same way and I seldom go back to look at what I flagged.

For all my delicacy, I will confess that I do sometimes dog-ear paperbacks… Never hardcovers, though!

How about it, Reds? Do you have an aversion to defacing (oh, such a harsh word!) books?

RHYS BOWEN:  A non-marker here. The good thing about Kindle is you can highlight. The bad thing is it’s hard to scroll back and forth when you’re reading and wonder “ who was Martin?” 

Like you I wrote in all the margins of my books, highlighted, multi color etc.  But now books feel sacred. 

HALLIE EPHRON: Being married to a rabid book collector broke me of my habit of dog-earing page corners to mark my place. These days I do write in books when I find something that particularly strikes me. But in pencil. And I’m thrilled… tickled… and delighted when someone brings me to sign  a copy of my WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL with its pages dogeared and festooned with multi-colored Post-Its. 

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I don’t think you’re going to find many of us on JRW who mark up their books, Debs! Like you, my textbooks looked like an electrical wiring diagram - different color highlighters, phrases underlined, starred and circled (in different color inks!)

Now, my colorful book reading habit arises from the fact I never, ever have a genuine bookmark at hand, so will use almost any piece of paper to indicate where I need to pick up the story again. Of course, if I DON’T go back to the book for some time, I can find odd things - long-discontinued coupons, ripped out columns from the newspaper, old photos, and, worst of all, an uncashed birthday check from my mother. (I had NO idea where it had disappeared to, and had to apologize SO many times…) Clearly, I need to treat bookmarks like reading glasses, and just scatter them everywhere.

LUCY BURDETTE: No markings on mine either! I do sprinkle bookmarks around like your reading glasses Julia. It also bothers me if I loan a book to someone and see it upside down and open so the whole thing gets bent. Especially if it’s signed!

On Kindle books, I’ve never highlighted anything and it always puzzles me to see dotted lines under some sentences. I guess those have been highlighted by lots of readers?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN:  I read a lot of advance reader copies, mostly in preparation to interview the authors, and I constantly mark in them and dogear the pages.  They are not to be kept, anyway, although I do keep them, but they are wonderful resources for me. I could not do an interview without that.  A finished book, no, I don’t annotate. I use whatever I have handy to be a bookmark, often a scrap of paper because I don't know what happens to bookmarks, they go wherever the others socks go. I do have to tell you though, that in an interview I attended, Ann Cleeves said she marks up every book, with great joy, and that it is part of her reading experience. 

And I have reading glasses everywhere. (Though they all always seem to wind up in the same place, and I have to sprinkle them again.) 

DEBS: That's so interesting about Ann, Hank, and something to think about. I would have enjoyed TIME OF THE CHILD even more if I'd been able to go back and reread bits I really loved.

And it makes sense that for you, reading ARCs is "homework." That's why you're so good at what you do!

I've had many much-loved bookmarks disappear into the ether. So aggravating. Now I sometimes use pretty blank cards from Trader Joe's–less easy to lose and at $.99 not a disaster if you do. I have been on a fox kick with my current book, so am enjoying this one.

And what can you get for $.99 these days??

JENN McKINLAY: I mark up my non-fiction like I'm taking a class. Highlighter, underline, and notes in the margin. I don't with fiction but I do dog ear the pages in paperback or hardcover. I'm not very precious about them unless they're signed by the author. Hub is a bookmark guy and he never marks them up. He considers books much more sacred than I do. 

How about it, dear readers, do you "annotate" your books?

Swag! Freebies! Goodies! What is wrong with me?

Jenn McKinlay

     Okay, I have a confession to make I love free stuff. I mean I really love free stuff, which is deeply at odds with my utter contempt for clutter. I swear it’s like I have split personalities about stuff. At a conference, I will vault over three other people and add a back handspring with a twist for a free pencil, but if the Hub or Hooligans leave their shoes in the middle of the floor, I will kick their shoes all the way to their bedrooms and if I’m really irritated, they will find them neatly tucked into their beds. Clutter makes me bonkers. Give me free stuff. These are my issues.

     Compounding my issues is the reality that I have developed a swag problem. It started so simply. “We’re going to make you a few bookmarks,” my publisher said. “Something you can hand out at conferences and signings.”

     That seemed smart. Then they offered to make postcards, too. Very nice. I felt like it was a sort of a business card for the books. I dutifully took them to events but then I noticed that other authors had even cooler stuff to hand out. Pens, sticky-notes, and sometimes key-chains, water bottles, and tote bags. In a blind panic of newbie authorness, I decided I had to up my game.

Because...TIARA!!!

     The darkness began with the book Sugar and Iced. Set against the backdrop of a beauty pageant, I thought it would be hilarious to offer up tiaras as a silly giveaway. Well, if the beauty pageant in the book was cut throat it was nothing compared to the rabid response I got from readers wanting to win a tiara. Seriously, bribes were involved! It just proves everyone wants a tiara, yes, even some dudes. I have to say, they were pretty sweet with real rhinestones on a metal base from a British import company and they only cost five bucks. After that, the madness snowballed into cupcake squishy balls, aprons, berets, library card swag, some of which was produced exclusively by the Poisoned Pen, you name it, we did it.

     I can hear you asking why even offer swag? Aren’t the books enough? I imagine every author has a different reason for offering bookmarks, bags, pens, or whatever. For me, I write several series so I’m promoting multiple stories, usually at the same time and this gives me a way to differentiate between them. For the current cupcake mystery out in April, I’m giving out measuring spoons. But then in May, I am debuting my first romantic comedy so it’s beach bags for everyone, okay, not everyone but the lucky ones who win a giveaway.

     Because naturally, as the swag mountain began to grow, my inner clutter hater reared her persnickety head, and I realized I needed to have structured giveaways to unload the loot.  So every Wednesday on my FB page, I have a giveaway of whatever crazy swag I have going, my book, or if I’ve signed with another author recently, their book. Why do giveaways? Well, mostly because in the beginning of my career I felt like every social media post was a pitch to buy my book, buy my book, buy my book. Bleh, I hated it! So, doing giveaways became a way of talking about the book or a friend’s book without talking about the book and it felt like an opportunity to say thank you to the readers, which, truly, I can never thank you all enough! So, here have a pen! LOL!

Leave a comment and be entered
to win this ridiculous giveaway!

So, Reds, tell me, do you like free stuff? Like a sweet Jungle Red Writers bookmark? What’s some of the best author swag you’ve seen? Readers leave a comment, telling us your preferred author swag (i.e. a book, a bag, a tiara, etc.) and be entered in a random drawing to win…well, free stuff! Because, of course, there's a giveaway!

What Marks Your Spot? Leslie Budewitz, Bookmarks, and GUILTY AS CINNAMON

SUSAN ELIA MACNEAL: Recently I sent a meme to a friend of mine who's a librarian — maybe you've seen it? It says something along the lines of "Bookmarks are for quitters." While I applaud the sentiment, we mere mortals sometimes have to mark where we are in a given book—whether it's to go to work, make a meal, or get some sleep. 

I have a few bookmarks that I love for sentimental reasons. One's a bookmark with a photograph of Winston Churchill and the quote "Never, never, never give up." There's one from a childhood friend that says "Keep Calm and Eat Cupcakes." And an engraved silver one from my first reading, which was at the Tattered Cover Bookstore in Denver, Co. 

Author Leslie Budewitz, though, has a long and varied history with bookmarks, both comical and poignant. 

Leslie is giving away a copy of her perfect-for-the-holidays new book, GUILTY AS CINNAMON and a tea infuser to one lucky commenter.
 
Take it away, Leslie!

"When I get a little money, I buy books. 

And if there is any left over buy food."

— Deciderius Erasmus

LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Don’t you just love the name Deciderius? What were his parents thinking?

I haven’t even started yet, and I’ve already digressed.

Not long ago, I needed to check a quote from a John Donne poem. (Don’t laugh; these things happen.) I pulled my ragged Norton’s Anthology of English Literature off the shelf and found not just the quote, but an amazing collection of old bookmarks.

I dragged out other volumes, shaking my head at what I discovered. The lost-and-found bookmarks read like a map of Seattle, where I spent most of my twenties and early thirties. A map of departed bookstores, dearly loved: Bailey/Coy Books on Broadway, where I bought the gray paperback editions of Dorothy L. Sayers’ Wimsey books, one at a time. The shop where I found Barbara Pym’s novels, gems of sharp-eyed, sharp-tongued storytelling. Second Story Bookstore in Wallingford, on the second floor of an old grade school. (The café next door was called “Recess,” the menu written on the ancient blackboards.)

The tour brought me back to Montana as well: A memento from Electric Avenue Books, the deeply-missed local bookstore, showing a two-story building with high arched windows. You’d recognize it in a flash on a stroll down our main street. I was surprised at the variety of bookmarks from the last indie in Kalispell, also closed. They changed seasonally, and always included a sketch and a literary quote, like the line from old Deciderius, above. Another, sporting an old roadster, quotes André Gide: “To read a writer is not merely to get an idea of what he says, but to go off with him, and travel in his company.” (Fittingly, I’d tucked that in Making Certain It Goes On: the Collected Poems of Richard Hugo, who often took road trips with friends and students around Montana and wrote poems inspired by the towns—and bars—they visited.)

And why I stuck a bookmark from Partners and Crime in New York in a Mary Oliver volume, I have no idea, but I think it would make the poet smile.

Quite a few of the bookstores still exist. I’ve signed at Seattle Mystery Bookshop several times, as have many of the Reds, and it touched me to find a bookmark from the shop’s early days, not long after Bill Farley opened it. I was a reader then, with no thoughts of writing. Newer versions hang on my office wall, along with bookmarks from other shops where I’ve read or signed.

Sadly, in a volume by e.e. cummings, I found a tasseled book mark bearing the smiling face of a toddler who’d been murdered by his father. His grandmother, a witness in an unrelated case, pressed it into my hands as we sat outside a federal courtroom.

I also found bits torn from envelopes, and a totally unfamiliar scrap of wallpaper. Crumpled maple leaves—remnants of my days at Notre Dame, a campus studded with magnificent trees. Course syllabuses—or syllabi, as Deciderius would probably call them. And in my copy of Montana: A History of Two Centuries, my first business card. Not long after I started my first law firm job, my parents visited. My father asked for my card, and then, eyes twinkling, stuck it in the book he was reading—now on my shelf.

(After I came back to Montana and joined a small law firm in a small town, I was working in our library one day, and found a business card from the long-deceased father of a high school classmate. I hadn’t known he’d once worked there, but of course, I plucked out the card and gave it to her.)

On another shelf, there’s a tottering pile of bookmarks from favorite writers, conferences, and friends. No doubt you have a similar stack. But have you got a reindeer bookmark?

Will someone find one of my bookmarks in a treasured volume some day? I can only hope so.

Reds, do you collect bookmarks? Always use the lovely Italian leather bookmark your brother brought you from Florence? Or mark your place with a candy wrapper or a toothpick?

And don't forget, a book and a tea infuser to one lucky commenter.

GUILTY AS CINNAMON, second in the Spice Shop Mysteries (Berkley Prime Crime, December 1)

Pepper Reece knows that fiery flavors are the spice of life. But when a customer dies of a chili overdose, she finds herself in hot pursuit of a murderer…

Leslie Budewitz is the author of the Food Lovers’ Village Mysteries and the Spice Shop Mysteries—and the first author to win Agatha Awards for both fiction and nonfiction. She fell in love with the Pike Place Market as a college student in Seattle, and still makes regular pilgrimages. The president of Sisters in Crime, she lives in northwest Montana with her husband, a musician and doctor of natural medicine, and their cat Ruff, a cover model and avid bird-watcher. Connect with her through her website and blog, www.LeslieBudewitz.com, or on Facebook, www.Facebook.com/LeslieBudewitzAuthor